709 



A NEW SPECIES OF ERIOCHLOA FROM THE 

 HAWKESBURY RIVER. 



By a. a. Hamilton. 



[N.O. Graminecf.^ 



Eriochloa iVIaidenii, n.sp. 



Hawkesbury River(A. A. Hamilton; May, 1912). 



A scrambling- perennial grass, with slender but rigid decumbent 

 stems, and ascending branches. Stems many-jointed, occasionally 

 rooting. Leaves from under 1 to rarely above 1 inch long, from 

 narrow to broad lanceolate, flat or concave, with a pale tliickened 

 margin, the short leaf-slieath and ligula ciliate with long silky 

 hairs; leaves and stems sparingly sprinkled with short hairs, the 

 hairs on all parts of the plant with a bulbous base. Inflorescence 

 reduced to a spike, seldom above 1 inch long, usually shorter, the 

 terminal spike on a peduncle of | to 1| inch, the lateral ones on 

 short branches partly immersed in the leaf -sheaths ; ihachis trique- 

 trous; peduncle, rhachis, and pedicels scabrous. Spikelets at the 

 base of the spike paniculate, 2-3 or occasionally 4 in a short 

 raceme; the upper ones solitary, 1 line long, acute, oblong-ovate, 

 not callous at the base; lower pedicels 1 line long, with a tuft of 

 silky hairs at the base; the upper ones shorter, the tuft of hairs 

 diminishing upwards; top of the pedicel cup-shaped, the short 

 stipes of the spikelet in tlie centre of the depression. Glumes three, 

 two outer empty, nearly equal, with five prominent, parallel nerves, 

 and two shorter, marginal ones, acute, herbaceous, with pale nar- 

 row, hyaline margins and apex, pubescent at the base, sparingly 

 so at apex ; no rudimentary palea present. Flowering glume coria- 

 ceous, obtuse, nearly as long as the outer glumes, with a point or 

 awn \ line long, exserted. Fruit smooth, its back usually turned 

 from the rhachis. Grain enclosed in the flowering glume and palea 



